Speech #730188812

Mr. Speaker. this bill. if enacted into law. would in effect repeal the mandatory provisions of all laws regulating the deportation of aliens in the Immigration Acts of 1917 and of 1924 and make deportation optional with the Secretary of Labor. and although section 6 of the bill provides that it is an addition to and not in substitution for the provisions of the immigration laws. including section 19 of the Immigration Act of February 5. 1917. it is misleading. to say the least. in view of the language of section 3 of the bill. Section 19 of the act of 1917 provides that aliens entering who at the time of entry belonged to the excluded class. aliens entering illegally. aliens advocating the overthrow of the Government of the United States by force. aliens becoming a public charge. within 5 years after entry their cases not affirmatively shown to have arisen subsequent to landing. and certain specified classes of criminals. as well as other classes of aliens. shall. upon warrant of the Secretary of Labor. be taken into custody and deported. Section 3 of the bill. however. clearly nullifies this mandatory language with respect to six enumerated classes of aliens. otherwise deportable. and permits the Secretary of Labor in her discretion to allow them to remain in the United States. provided only that she finds them to be of good moral character and not convicted of moral turpitude. or crimes and not to have engaged in subversive political agitation. It is to be noted that this last qualification would still permit the Secretary to allow an alien to remain who was known to be a member of an organization whose avowed purpose is to overthrow the Government by force. which is clearly not permissible under the present laws making such persons mandatorily deportable. A careful examination of the six subdivisions of section 3 (p. 3 of the bill) will show that they cover a vast majority of all deportable aliens. From the wording of clauses (1). (5) it is quite clear that illegal entrants are not regarded as those whom the Secretary may not allow to remain as not being of "good moral character ". for they obviously relate in several instances to persons who have "entered the United States " in any kind of way. this notwithstanding that under present law illegal entry is a prison offense. Generally speaking. and excepting persons convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude. clause (1) makes it discretionary with the Secretary to keep in the country all those classes now mandatorily deportable. although legally admitted. and clause (5) allows him to retain here the great majority of the illegal entrants. since it covers every alien who has a near relative who was legally admitted to the country or who is a citizen. This means about fourfifths of all aliens in the country. since the annual reports on immigration for years back show that this proportion of all legally admitted immigrants come "to join relatives." Thus. it clearly appears that the aliens whose deportation would remain mandatory under the misleading language of the bill would be a negligible number. Clause 3 of section 3 would make a new statute of limi tations for the deportation of aliens. Under present law no immigrant who entered legally since the first quota law was passed in 1921 is rendered immune from deportation by mere lapse of time. The clause in question would change this radically and would make an alien entering at any time nondeportable in the discretion of the Secretary of Labor. provided he has succeeded in hiding out for 10 years or has not been attended to by the authorities whose duty it was to deport him within that time. The amendment of 1929 drawing the line at entrants before 1921 for those who could gain immunity from illegal entry. was professedly passed to take care of a considerably large number of immigrants who in fact had entered legally but whom our officials failed to register. Therefore. theoretically at least. there is no general statute of limitations as to legal entry at present. This is as it should be. for the continued residence in this country of an alien who entered in violation of our laws is a continued defiance of those laws and there can be no greater encouragement to illegal entrythe Achilles heel of all immigration restrictionthan condoning the act itself. Clause 6 of. section 3 would permit an illegal entrant to gain Executive clemency and escape deportation by giving evidence against another illegal entrant. Clauses 4 and 5. although less important than those already referred to. would have the effect of actually separating families by allowing the alien children under 16 smuggled into the country by their parents to remain here while the parents (who presumably had entered illegally at the same time) might be deported. Section 3 alonethe heart of the billis so destructive of our whole system of immigration restriction as to make it incumbent upon all Members of Congress who are sincere restrictionists to vote as one man against it. I submit to the Membership that we should not repeal these mandatory provisions of the acts of 1917 and 1924 and permit decision on such important matters to lie with the Secretary of Labor.